Method of packaging articles of furniture and the like and pack or shell incasement therefor



July 26, 1927.

v R. M. METHOD OF PACKAGING ARTICLES OF FURNITURE AND THE BUCK LIKE AND PACK OR SHELL INCASEMENT THEREFOR Filed vA112 16, 1924 3 Shets-Sheet l .71! Q 1 r i I r I I July 26) r R. M.

METHOD OF PACKAGING ARTICLES OF FURNITURE AND THE LIKE AND PACK OR SHELL INCASEME'NT THEREFOR Filed A112. 16, 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented July '26, 1927.

mm 11. BUCK, or mcnronn, vE'RMouT TION, 0F rostrum, MASSACHUSETTS; -A

ASSIGNOR' T0 ATLAS rLrwoon conrona- CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

METHOD OF rncxaeme AnTrenEs OEruRurTURE AND THE LIKE AND PACK on SHELL INcAsEMENT THEREFOR.

Application file'd August 16, 1924. Serial No. 732,459;

This invention relates to the packaging of furmture for shipment, and involves both a novel method of packaging the article of furniture and a novel pack 01' Shell incasement therefor.

For the purposes of this ap lication I shall show and discuss the severa s'tpsof a packing operation which may befc'onsidered as characteristic andin which thearticl'e' of furniture to be packed is a vanity; case,

buffet, chiffonier, or like article, which is usually 'highlyphlrshed'pn its top, ends and front face, and generally unfinished or only roughly finished on its bottom and'backfaceQ Such articles are usually rovid'edwith legs or feet, which, while su cie'ntly strong to support the article, areill-adapted to stand any racking or strain, especially of a diagonal or lateral character.

Heretofore, in, packaging for shipment such an article of furniture, and particularly inpackaging such an article for shipment from factory to customer, it'has been the practice to wrap the article, in whole or in part, in a protective coyering of paper, burlap and exce'lsi'or, and to then incase it in the usual slatted packing crate.

Furniture thus crated and shipped is more or less exposed to dirt and cinders and the elements, and consequently almost invari-' ably not only has to be rubbed down and in some instances refinished after reaching its destination, but it can not remain crated for any considerable length of time without having its finish affected by sweating or blooming under the packing. Aside from these objections, the ordinary furniturecrate did not properly support and cushion the article of furniture against strains and chafing, and moreover, was relatively expensive, had considerable shipping weight, and required considerable time to properly pack.

To the end thereforeof'overcoming these objections to existing practice, I have devised my present methodfof and shell incasement for packaging' furniture. In"carrying out my invention, I provide a walled shell or bonnet which in characteristic form, suitable for most articles of'furniture, consists of afour-sid'ed member having usually an open back adapted 'to be partially: closed by the"finishedside'of the article offui'ni 'ture incased within said shell and an ope'n frontwhich is subsequently closedby a detachable cover sheet afterthe article of-furnlture has been inserted within said shell, the shell itself being, otherwise, so constructcd that the article of furniture will be cradled within it by the, rigid attachment of one of] its unfinished faces a)" supports*ein bodied in the shell itself, whereby, when assembled, the article of furniture and the shell constitute what may 'betermed a primary orun itary pack'. Y

In packaging an article of furniture in such ashell and in accordance with my method, I first" place the finished front face of the furniture*against thejflat faceof a packing table over which has beenlaida "protective' covering of paper or the like, and wrap this coveringab'out the furniture; I nextinsert my novel shell incaseme'nt over the article from a'bovewith f the open'back ofsaid shel l disposed against the packing table, and then 'screw orotherwise detachably fasten the unfinished face of the furniture to pair of anchor strips carried bythe end walls ofthe shell adfiacent the openbotthereof, At this stzite,the position of the furniture is fixed within theshell. I then fasten a transversely disposed cradle strip across the shell in suchposition as to support the bottom of the furniture and thus cradle the furniture within the shell when the shell is Lip-ended, after which the shell and attached article of furniture is removed from the packing. table, laid front side upon the ffioor, and a cover sheetdetach ably fastened over the open front side of the shell.

The method of practicing my invention, together with a characteristic shell incasement in accordance with the principles thereof, andwh'ich in itself has been a'form found well adapted to practical require ments, is describedand "illustrated in the accompanying specification and drawings, and the particular features of novelty are pointed out in the appended claims. Throughout the specification and 'clrawing's, like reference characters are corresponding ly-appl'ied, and in'the drawings:

of my method in packaging such an article of furniture as a vanity case,-

Fig. 1 showing the vanity case laid front side down on the flat top of a packing table with my novel shell incasement disposed thereabove, back side up, in position to be dropped over the vanity case and attached thereto;

Fig. 2 showing the shell incasement about the vanity case, said case screwed to and cradled within said shell, a

Fig. 3 showing the shell and attached vanity case swung otf the packing table and disposed on the floor front side up; and 3 Fig. .4 showing the front closure in position to be attached over the open front side of the shell. i

Fig. 5 "s a section on the line 5-5 of Fi Sis. a skeletonized View particularly showing the cradle strips of the shell incasement, and v Figs. 7 andS-are sections on the lines 7-7 and 8-8, respectively of Fig; 2.

Before; proceedlng to a description of my novel method, I shall first describe the construction of a preferred. shell incasement which I use to carry out my method. This shell consists of a four sidedmember comprising a solid top wall 1, solid end walls 2 and 3, and abottom wall 4, which is preferably of slatted type. The solid top and end wallsare preferably of veneer or the like. All walls are suitably tied together by appropriate frame strips 2 and cross-braced as indicated at 3' in Figs. 1 and 2, and these strips and braces may be of scrap lumber.

The walls 1 2, 3 and therefore define a enerally rectangular shell closed at top, bottom and ends, but initially open from frontto rear. For convenience of identification, the open front is designated by the numeral 5 and the open back by the numeral 6. \Vhile these sides 5 and 6 are not necessarily entirely open, I shall refer to them particularly as'open sides in contradistinction to the walls 1, 2 and 3 which are wholly closed, and preferably tightly closed, so as to afford full protection to the finished surfaces of the article of furniture which is to be enclosed within the shell.

Extending from top to bottom of the shell along its open hackface 6 is a pair of longitudinal hanger bars 7 which are nailed or otherwise permanently fastened to the adjacent edges of the endwalls 2 and 3 of the shell. These hanger bars 7 overlie the edges of the unfinished or roughly finished back of the article of furniture F to be packaged when the shell is applied over the furniture as shown in Fig. 2, and they and the article of furniture are adapted to be engaged by suitable detachable fastenings, shown as screws 8 in Fig. 2, whichrigidly draw the article of furniture up against said bars whereby the shell and article of furniture are firmly held together against relative movement and constitute a unitary pack.

One or more transverse cradle strips 9 (Fig. (i) are then permanently fastened across the shell between its top and bottom and closely adjacent the bottomwall of the article of furniture so as to cradle the furniture within the shell. These strips 9 at ceed to a description of my novel method of packaging.

In packaging an article of furniture in",

accordance with my method, I first cover the face of a fiat topped packing'table T with a sheet of wrapping paper I? and layon this protective sheet a pair of ipadded spacer bars B on which the article of furniture F to be packed laid with its finished front disposed against the paper sheet and its unfinished back uppermost, asshown in Fig. 1. The edges of the paperslieet are then folded around the article; of furniture and if dcsired may be lightly tacked to it.

The next. step'inmy method consists in laying my novel shell incasement from above over the article of furniture thus positioned on the packing table. This step is illustrated diagrammatically in Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 1 shows theshell as about to be placed over the articleiof furniture resting on the packing table, and Fig. 2' shows the shell as having been dropped down on to the packing table to enclose all four sides of the article offnrniture, after which shell and article are firmly but detachably fastened to each other to prevent relative displacement thereof.

This may be conveniently accomplished by screwing the shell directly to the unfinished back of the article of. furniture, and I have so shown it in Fig. 2, wherein the vertical hanger bars 7 at the corners of the open back ofthe shell are shown as screwed at 8 to the article of furniture. These screws 8 are, of course, withdrawn when the article of furniture is unpacked.

The .pieceof furniture is now firmly but detachably fixed in its proper positional relationship within the shell, but in order.

to avoid placing the full carrying strains of the furniture on the screws 8, I next construct the cradle 9 which carries the full- Weight of the article of furniture when the manta? shell is up ended and ready for shipment. This cradle-lies directly under the bottom wall of the article of furniture and thus supports the weight of the furniture when the shell is u-p-ended.

The articlebf furniture is now rigidly hung within the shell with the unfinished back of the article of furniture partially closing the open backof the shell (see Figs. T-and 8). At this stageof my method, the shell is ready-to be closed'across its open front-towardswhich thefinishedfaee of the article --of' furniture is disposed.

The next step in my method therefore consists in removing the shell and attached artide of furniture from the packing table and closing it across its open front face. This may be conveniently accomplished by simply swinging the shell over upon itself 'from the packing table onto the floor, :as diagrammatically illustrated in Fig.3 so:as to present the uncovered r front face of the shell upwardly in position to receive the front closure or cover 11 which is preferably a solid sheet of veneer'or the like of the proper dimensions to completely close said open front and adapted to be tacked or otherwise secured thereover.

The article of furniture is now completely incased and rigidly but removably secured in its incasement. In this condition it is ready for shipment, although in the case of articles of furniture of unusual size or weight it is sometimes desirable to brace them across the partially opened back of the shell and this may be conveniently done by simply nailing one or more brace strips across the back of the shell.

By making the front 5 as an open front which is subsequently closed by the cover sheet 11 after the furniture has been cradled within the shell, the operation of ackaging the article of furniture is not on y greatly facilitated but the furniture itself may be definitely and firmly attached to and cradled within the shell in its proper positional relationship, without the necessity of elaborate wrappings and without danger of strain or chafing in shipment. The shell is a closely fitting conformed incasement within which the article of furniture is fixed and supported in such relation that there is no appreciable physical contact between shell and furniture. Hence, furniture so packaged has been found to have a high increased average improvement in condition and can be packed and unpacked with greater ease and rapidity than under existing methods.

Although I have shown and described my invention in its adaptation to the packaging of furniture. it is to be understood that such treatment is purely illustrative and in no way limiting, and that various other articles may be packaged and shipped with corresponding advantage. Similarly, of course,

variousmodifications inadesign and structure of the shell-itselfzmaybeamade,:.for different styles and articles of furniture. These, and such other variations andcdepartures as fall within the purview of my invention may all heresortedrto within the limits of the ap pended claims.

"WVh-at I therefore claim and desire to secure by: Letters. Patent is:

1. LA shipping pack for anzartic'le: having awplurality offinished faces and at least onennfini'shed face. comprising a shell enclosingcorresponding finished faces of the articleandopenffrom'front. to rear, means carried by and adjacent the open back of said shell and:attached tozand supporting thez-articleiwithin the shell with its unfinished face disposed towards the open rear of the shell, and constituting a partial rear closure of said shell, and afront closure adapted-"to be removably fastened over the open front of said shell.

2. A shipping pack for an article having a plurality of finished faces and at least one unfinished face comprising a shell enclosing corresponding finished faces of the article and open from front to rear, means carried by and adjacent the open back of the shell and attached to and rigidly supporting the article within said shell in spaced relation from the walls thereof with its unfinished face disposed towards the open rear of the shell, said unfinished faceconstituting a partial rear closure of the shell, and afront closure adapted to be removably fastened over the open front of said shell in spaced relation from the contained article.

3. A shipping pack for an article having a plurality of finished faces and at least one unfinished face comprising a shell enclosing corresponding finished faces of the article and open from front to rear, a pair of longitudinally disposed hanger bars extending along the open back of said shell adjacent its end walls. means for detachably fastening the unfinished face of the article to said hanger bars whereby all of the finished faces of the article are maintained in spaced relation from the shell, said unfinished face of the article constituting a partial rear closure of the shell, and a front closure adapted to be removably fastened over the open front of said shell in spaced relation from the contained article.

4. A shipping pack for an article having a plurality of finished faces and at least one unfinished face, comprising a shell enclosing corresponding finished faces of the article and open from front to rear. a pair of longitudinally disposed hanger bars extending along the open back of said shell adjacent its end walls, means for attaching the unfinished face of the article to said hanger bars, said unfinished face and said hanger bars constituting a partial rear closure of the shelh and a frontelosure adapted to be removably fastened over the open front of said shell.

r l V 5. A shipping pack: for an'article having a plurality of finished faces and at least. one unfinished face comprising a shell enclosing corresponding finished faces of the article and open from front to rear, means carried by and adjacent the open back of said shell and attached to and supporting an article within theshell with its unfinished face disposed towards transversely disposed cradle supported within said shell intermediate of its top and bottom walls and designed to support the article to be packaged from below, said unfinished face of the article constituting a partialrcar closure of the shell, and a front closure adapted to he reinovahly fastened over the open front of said shell.

6. Ashipping pack for an articlejhaving a plurality of finished faces andat least one the-open rear of the shell, a

unfinished face, "comprising a shell enclosing corresponding finished faces of the article and openfrorn front to rear, a pair of longitudinally disposed hanger bars extending along the open back of said shell and adapted partially-to close said open back, means for detachably fastening the unlinished face of the article to said hanger bars' 

